#21806
Rethinking the Evaluation of Writing in Engineering Courses 
The objective of this paper is to bring about a reevaluation of writing assessment practices in engineering classes. The authors begin by drawing rhetoric (the knowledge base of effective technical communication) and engineering together, explaining how engineering work is rhetorical. From this theoretical vantage point, the authors argue for a change in engineering writing assessment practices. Specifically, they argue for an approach that favors formative assessment (focused on writing comments that lead to both better writing and better engineering) over summative assessment (which sees writing ability as separate from engineering design). The authors continue by revealing a scoring guide for the formative assessment of engineering reports, and detailing the process by which such a scoring guide may be created. Each criterion in the scoring guide is explained in terms of the rhetorical and engineering principles that it simultaneously addresses.
Swarts, Jason and Lee Odell. Rice University (2001). Articles>Education>Engineering>Technical Writing
#29103
Textual Grounding: How People Turn Texts Into Tools 
The author argues that users see texts as tools when they recognize the texts' specific value and function within highly localized use settings. The author argues that users "ground" their texts to local use settings by altering the ways in which the texts structure and represent information (e.g., underlining, annotation, and sketching). The author discusses three practices by which texts are grounded as tools in document reviews: mode shifting, layering, and marking. These practices reflect different ways by which users add, subtract, and restructure information in a text so that it is usable under very specific conditions. This article explores document review as a practice in which grounding is the object of discussion (how others use the reviewed documents) and a practice by which review is facilitated. These observations will be important for exploration of technology to support "grounding" practices.
Swarts, Jason. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2004). Articles>TC>Collaboration
#23788
Writer Training: Complementary Models of Document Review in the Classroom and at Work
Document review is an important tool for knowledge management and socialization. However, because the relationship between texts and work is changing with advances in information technology, we must reconsider the necessity and practice of document review. We need to examine what reviewers are currently doing to see how those practices match with or can be complemented by the classroom based review practices that are commonly used. This paper sketches out a new model of review (mediated practice) that combines the strength of workplace and classroom based models of review.
Swarts, Jason. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Knowledge Management>Workflow
#32617
Work activities that are mediated by information rely on the production of discourse-based objects of work. Designs, evaluations, and conditions are all objects that originate and materialize in discourse. They are created and maintained through the coordinated efforts of human and non-human agents. Genres help foster such coordination from the top down, by providing guidance to create and recreate discourse objects of recurring social value. From where, however, does coordination emerge in more ad hoc discursive activities, where the work objects are novel, unknown, or unstable? In these situations, coordination emerges from simple discursive operations, reliably mediated by information and communication technologies (ICTs) that appear to act as discursive agents. This article theorizes the discursive agency of ICTs, explores the discursive operations they mediate, and the coordination that emerges. The article also offers and models a study methodology for the empirical observation of such interactions.
Swarts, Jason. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2008). Articles>Technology>Research>Contextual Inquiry
#34885
Textual Grounding: How People Turn Texts into Tools
The author argues that users see texts as tools when they recognize the texts' specific value and function within highly localized use settings. The author argues that users "ground" their texts to local use settings by altering the ways in which the texts structure and represent information (e.g., underlining, annotation, and sketching). The author discusses three practices by which texts are grounded as tools in document reviews: mode shifting, layering, and marking. These practices reflect different ways by which users add, subtract, and restructure information in a text so that it is usable under very specific conditions. This article explores document review as a practice in which grounding is the object of discussion (how others use the reviewed documents) and a practice by which review is facilitated. These observations will be important for exploration of technology to support "grounding" practices.
Swarts, Jason. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2004). Articles>Documentation>Writing>Theory
#34989
Work activities that are mediated by information rely on the production of discourse-based objects of work. Designs, evaluations, and conditions are all objects that originate and materialize in discourse. They are created and maintained through the coordinated efforts of human and non-human agents. Genres help foster such coordination from the top down, by providing guidance to create and recreate discourse objects of recurring social value. From where, however, does coordination emerge in more ad hoc discursive activities, where the work objects are novel, unknown, or unstable? In these situations, coordination emerges from simple discursive operations, reliably mediated by information and communication technologies (ICTs) that appear to act as discursive agents. This article theorizes the discursive agency of ICTs, explores the discursive operations they mediate, and the coordination that emerges. The article also offers and models a study methodology for the empirical observation of such interactions.
Swarts, Jason. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2008). Articles>Knowledge Management>Project Management>Technology
